The IO mafia is everywhere.
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The IO mafia is everywhere.
It is ridiculous. I don't even know why there are other brands of salt made. IO is perfect in every way.
I have Tropic Marin in my tank. I will drain it and sterilize it with fire immediately.
I am sorry.
Last time I had diatoms, I changed out DI cartridge with a Silica Buster and diatoms went away. I have used IO for 22 years with no issues.
Let’s not turn this thread in to a chance to bash IO. My question was just that: a question. All of you have helped me figure out what the potential cause might be. I assumed since the TDS meter read 0, I was okay as far as silicates go. The logical step from there was to examine the salt I was using. However, I now realize silicates might still be entering my RODI water and not be recognized by the TDS meter. Also, I think I remember someone telling me a while back that Dallas tap water is high in silicates. I will try the silica buster and see how it works. No need to bash IO salt anymore. Thanks!
The icp results indicate instant ocean does indeed contain silicates. That said I use it myself as do so many others that I wouldn't consider it to be a major problem.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/saltmix-parameters-bring-on-the-test-results.233233/
How old is your tank and are you sure it's diatoms? Cyanobacteria can be rust-colored and be easily mistaken for diatoms and is more likely what it is if in an older tank. If your tank is only a few months old, it probably just doesn't have enough benthic sponge growth to rapidly consume the silica -- in which case beefing up your cleanup crew and focusing on limiting one of the other macro-nutrients required by diatom algae (phosphate, especially) will probably do more good than trying to limit silica input -- which is probably not all that much unless you're doing huge water changes with unfiltered tap water. I intentionally dose 3ppm+ silica per week to my tank and don't have diatom issues, but find that they begin to appear if my phosphate gets above 0.05ppm or so...
Tank is about 9 months old. Here is a pic